A few months back, the civic agency cancelled all previous permissions accorded to individuals for beautification of waste land adjoining their houses following directions from the Islamabad High Court on July 24.
On Thursday, the CDA enforcement wing removed structures erected on the two-acre area in sector F-7/4.
Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry was given a no-objection certificate to beatify the land, adjacent to the plot his house is built on in Street 51, Sector F-7/4, in 2003, when he was a PML-Q member of the lower house.
Chaudhry allegedly misused the terms and conditions of the NOC by fencing off the whole area and installing a barrier and security guards cabins on the land. “Benches were also installed along with a small children’s play and some fruit trees,” said a senior enforcement wing official.
The official said other illegalities included that a public thoroughfare passing through the area was blocked, denying free movement to local residents, while a parking shed and a small aviary were also set up in the same area.
The official said all the illegally-erected structures were removed during the operation and the occupied land had also been retrieved.
Talking to The Express Tribune, CDA spokesperson Asim Khichi said the operation had been carried out in light of the Islamabad High Court decision and was part of an ongoing operation against land use violators.
He dispelled the impression that the operation was in response to Chaudhry’s recent defection from the ruling PML-N to the PTI.
Four other plots were retrieved is sectors F-6 and F-10. The owners had committed similar illegalities on their respective plots.
“During the operation, lawns and gardens set up on CDA land were removed and land adjacent to five residential houses in different sectors was retrieved from illegal occupants,” the statement said.
It adds that during the last six-months the CDA had retrieved a number of such plots and earned handsome revenue by auctioning such plots.
There are an estimated 500 plots in Islamabad’s sectors which have been encroached upon in the name of beautification. Many plot holders flatly refused to vacate them following the cancellation of NOCs by the CDA.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Chaudhry termed the retaking of the plot “an example of state terrorism” and “political revenge” by the CDA on behalf of the federal government in response to him joining the PTI. He added that over 200 CDA staffers along with tractors and bulldozers “raided his house” and uprooted his lawn and trees.
He said he did not know if the CDA cancelled the NOC issued to him in 2003. “There is a legal way to do things. Instead of informing me through a notice, they directly raided my house,” he added.
“First the Punjab police raided my house in Mandi Bahauddin, now they are doing the same in Islamabad,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 12th, 2014.
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